


Break Time

by JanitorBot



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: 30+ years in a tube period, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Street Fighter references too, Super Smash Bros references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 06:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanitorBot/pseuds/JanitorBot
Summary: X and Rock spar.





	Break Time

**Author's Note:**

> Commissioned fic for Crashmeow who wanted the following:  
> X and Rock interaction, something angsty  
> So funny thing: Crashmeow's prompt spawned two fics: one is this one which fulfills the prompt, and the second which also kinda fulfills the prompt, but became an entirely different monster, hence being a separate fic called "Through the Unmet Man."  
> Inspiration is funny.  
> Nonetheless, Crashmeow, I hope this fic satisfies you.

It’s a beautiful day outside. It’s always beautiful at home no matter what. It can be raining cats and dogs (hah, human idioms are delightful despite their origin tales no longer apply as times goes) or hailing in the dead of winter, and that would still be beautiful. Nature is an uncontrollable phenomenon that embodies the truest sense of freedom and X can appreciate it.

Also, Roll brings out the hot chocolate then. Even though none of the robots can really have it, Dr. Light can and the elderly scientist’s face lights up, bringing the sun into the house when the real sun can’t be seen. 

There are many things X can appreciate now he’s a little more self-aware than before. He doesn’t have all the answers yet, but that’s fine. X is more than content where he is right now: sitting on the front lawn gazing the clouds go by with Rock lying down next to him, arms folded behind his black, wind-blown hair, relaxed. 

X watches the breeze comb through the grass, the clover flowers, and Rock’s synthetic hair. Roll is humming a song as she hangs an entire week’s of laundry up on clotheslines while Dr. Light is practicing tai-chi. He has to stay in shape.   

It’s peaceful. X likes this. He wants this to last forever.

“Everlasting peace would be nice, wouldn’t it,” Rock says wistfully, echoing X’s thoughts.

“Yes, it would be,” X agrees readily.  

A peaceful and happy world where there’s no needless pain or fighting. Where humans and robots are coexisting the same way Dr. Light and his children are coexisting: side by side, working together, and enriching each other’s lives with their presence.

A world where everyone is a family just like them.

Then X frowns. He raises his knees and hugs them close to their chest. He opens his mouth to ask a question but hesitates.

“X?” Rock says, noticing X’s change in demeanor.

“I…” X shakes his head and smiles. “I want to do something else. Can we do something else?”

Rock raises from the ground slowly. “What would you like to do, X?”

X hums, pondering. “Maybe something that you like to do? You were a household robot, specifically designed as a lab assistant. But isn’t there anything besides lab work that you liked - like to do?” X hastily amends, trying to maintain peace.

Rock rubs the back of his head sheepishly. “Well, I used to play a lot of video games but…”

“Mostly because you liked studying the technical aspect of it,” X continues, understanding.

“Yeah. I think I took apart more consoles than played them. What’s so funny?” Rock exclaims when X chuckles.

“You’re _boring_ ,” X teases. “Outside of your domain, you don’t have many hobbies!”

“I don’t need much outside of it! I’ll have you know that there’s tons of fun, cool stuff within my domain!” Rock insists as X laughs harder. “Science is cool!”

“It is, it is,” X placates, calming down. “But Dr. Light has been working on the same project forever and there’s no way to advance it. So. Want to play some video games then?”

“Anything you want,” grins Rock. “You’re my brother.”

X’s smile twitches before resuming back into place. No. X isn’t going to ruin this moment. This is supposed to be X’s Break Time.

“ _I_ want to play video games,” X announces.

Rock nods and a nanosecond later they’re inside the house, sitting in front of the large screen television in the living room. Various consoles and video game titles are scattered on the floor, arranged like menu choices.

“I remember seeing this once,” X says picking one game, studying the cover which shows a robot hopping from a blue portal to an orange one on the other side. “You liked the gameplay a lot. It had co-op, but you never did it.” X side-eyes Rock. “Did you?”

Rock shrugs. Hmm, a no answer then.

“Do you want to…“ X stops himself, huffs, and says,” Let’s play the co-op campaign.”

“I never played it so it doesn’t exist, X,” Rock apologizes gently. “You can only play the solo player run.”

“…Right.”

X puts down the game and picks up another one. “And this one, I…I haven’t seen you played this yet.”

X slots the game in its respective console and sighs a relief when it works. The game screen shows up and X hands the controller to Rock, who looks at the gesture with surprise.

“I want to watch you play the game,” X explains.

“Sure.” Rock takes the controller. The television skips through the loading screen, the narration script is blank, and Rock goes straight into the game.

“It seems you didn’t care much about the story then?” questions X as he observes Rock’s character hops upon platform to platform, reverses time to solve a door puzzle, and continues on smoothly.

“I did care about the story,” says Rock, twisting towards X but his hands are still moving. Rock completes another stage puzzle without looking at it. “If I cared only about the game programming then I wouldn’t keep the memory of the game and there’s only so much room in my drive. There must have been a reason that I didn’t keep the memory of the story.”

X’s attention flits back and forth between Rock’s autonomous hands and Rock’s blue eyes. The casual ease of the robot master’s multi-tasking frustrates the taller robot. In the corner of his peripheral vision, X spots Rock enters a boss fight, avoiding fire blasts and dropping chandeliers on the enemy.

It gives X an idea.  

“Is sparring possible?” X declares suddenly.

Both the game and Rock stops. Rock raises an eyebrow and X is both unwillingly satisfied and sad to see the shorter robot’s expression is one of reluctance.

“Yes, it is,” Rock says very evenly.

“Then can I spar you?”

Rock grimaces. “Yes. Yes, you can."

“Fighting is your domain too,” X points out at Rock’s weak reply.

“It is but you know how I feel about it,” the Mega Man sighs.

X does and that’s why he wants to do this.  

Rock anxiously fiddles with the controller in his hands and X hides a triumphant smile as he says, “I want to spar.”

The living room swaps for a neutral training space with photon generator cube tiles covering every inch. Rock’s clothes vanish under blue armor and his black hair statics away in his iconic blue helmet.

“How would you like to do this, X?” Rock asks as he stands up, dropping the game controller that blinks out of existence before it can clatter on the floor.  

“What do you mean?”

“It’ll be an awful mess if you don’t set the conditions of the spar. Time limits, specific environments, buster-only or copied weaponry allowed, pain sensors fully online or dial them to minimal…” Rock shrugs helplessly. “I’ll go with whatever you want but may I personally suggest we do this like paintball and keep the pain minimal? This is your first spar and I really don’t want to hurt you…”

“Of course!” X blurts, excited. “Whatever conditions you suggest, let’s do it!”

“Percentage-based damage system, default environment, copied weaponry set two, and pain sensors down to ten percent. Will that suffice?” 

“Yes!”

“Understood.”

X instantly receives the data for Copied Weaponry Set Two: Spark Shock, Flame Sword, Slash Claw, Air Shooter, Hard Knuckle, Super Arm, Metal Blade, Leaf Shield.

“Would you like to practice with the arsenal before we begin?”

X’s arm reconfigures settings and a Metal Blade slides into his hand. “No, I’ve got an idea on how they work.”

With that said, X speeds forward, hops, and flings the blade right down where Rock’s standing, but Rock slide dashes away, yelling with laughing indignation,” Hey, I didn’t even say start yet!”

“None of the Wilybots do!” X counters, then curses when he finds himself raises his forearms with a Hard Knuckle flies at his face. 

“You’re right! But I’m not a Wilybot.”

Then X feels a hard impact at the bottom of his head and is shot upwards, coming close to the ceiling. He falls backward in an arc, bounces twice and stays down, groaning.

“Oh gosh, are you okay!?” he hears Rock cries some paces away.

X coughs out as he lumbers up, eyes bright and processor sparking. “What are you talking about? Pain sensors are down at ten percent, of course I am! But I can’t believe you uppercut me in the chin – you seriously Shoryuken’d me!”

Rock raises his arms, exasperated. “About time someone got the reference!”

Then Rock’s face meets ground when X swings down a Flame Sword right on top of his head.

They do a couple rounds, shooting back and forth with buster shots, pressuring each other’s movements by strategically placing down Metal Blades, creating and destroying routes by snatching the blades up and replacing them again.

“Are we fighting or playing really dangerous fetch?” asks X when he swipes a tossed blade at tosses it right back, following it up with an Air Shooter.

“This is a spar, which means we are indeed fighting,” replies Rock. "It can appear that we are playing fetch because we both specialize in mid-range combat and projectiles – “ 

X rolls his eyes half-heartedly. “It was a rhetorical question.”

“X!” Rock pouts. “I can’t do rhetorical questions!”

X internally winces at that truth. Instead of saying anything more, X shoves more power into his thrusters and charges forward, drawing out a ruthless Slash Claw upwards on Rock’s legs, grunting as he digs into the other robot’s armor to toss him upwards –

“I’m nearly twice as heavy as you are,” Rock remarks when X lamely throws him in the air and fails, which has Rock go up by half a meter before landing down fast.

X glares witheringly as he rolls away from a downwards charge shot. “For someone who looks like ten, you should _not_ be over a hundred kilos. Actually, why didn’t you go up? You can lift at least five hundred easily. Shouldn’t my tensile strength match that?”

“If you used Strong Arm and carried the momentum, you could have,” Rock says encouragingly.

They exchange more blows – too close together to use highly powered projectiles, resorting to hand-to-hand combat, and X keeps closing in the distance to prevent Rock from using the other weaponry.

Then Rock’s eyes flashes and X gets a split sinking feeling before Rock dances around X, heaves the taller robot up, and pelting X in a whirlwind of leaf-shaped blades, raining down on X as Rock lets go.

Given no second to rest, X attempts to move out of the way but then there’s a Metal Blade and he isn’t fast enough. The serrated disc successfully pins his shoulder down, followed by three rapid shots of the Mega-Buster then finally a Hard Knuckle – right into his abdomen to finish it off.

X doesn’t get up after that merciless barrage especially after he distantly registers an otherworldly, _“Damage Percentage reached limit,”_ and feels the information of the copied weapons deleted from his mental inventory without his permission.

A shadow hovers over X and Rock’s twisted expression enters his view. “I’m sorry, I may have gone too far with that last combo.” The older robot reaches out a hand and X takes it, finally standing up.

Whatever expression X is making, it has Rock tilting his head, brows furrowing.

“You look pretty happy for someone who got his butt handed to him,” says Rock suspiciously.

X gives a careless shrug. “I am. It was a good fight.”

“Oh.” Rock looks down at his feet. “I guess it was.”

 X catches on immediately and drops his shoulders. “You don’t think any fight is a good fight.”

“Do you think that’s wrong?”

“That’s…” X looks away. “It depends on how it’s defined. Debates and healthy competition can be considered ‘fights,’ and I do not dislike them. But fighting in the way that you do and what we just did…I’m more than aware of the reason we do it. And it’s because of that reason that I too dislike fighting.”

“You proposed to spar. Are you preparing early? If it is out of worry, be rest assured that all is on track. Everything’s set up for your progress.”

X flinches. He shuts his eyes and balls his fists. Under his exvent, he mutters,” Why did you have to ruin it like that.”

Rock blinks. “Ruin?”

“You were so alive just now,” X says, suddenly too tired to dam the bitterness in his tone. “You were sad and playful and creative and…” He raises a hand to his helmet, snorting cynically. “Only when you fight. It makes sense. Most of your memories are battle records so that would reflect in your simulated personality the best.”

X’s face twists into thinly veiled pain. “Why can’t you be real, Rock.”

When Rock opens his mouth, X waves him off quickly. “It was rhetorical. Don’t answer. I already know why.”

Because this world is fake including his brother. All X can have is a shadow of someone he will never meet.

“I think I’m done with Break Time,” whispers X. “Resume the morality tests.”

The hologram that wears Rock’s appearance nods obediently.

“Understood.”


End file.
